Grace Adele

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Grace Adele in the "Columbus Dispatch"
Category: Music
LOCAL LIMELIGHT

Grace Adele
Style an 'alternative-country feel infused with jazz, pop and rock
qualities' New music , available at www.zen sounds.com Concert 7 p.m.
Sunday in the Thirsty Ear Tavern, 1200 W. 3rd Ave. (614-299-4987,
www.thethirsty ear.com) Admission $10, including compact disc

Thursday,
October 23, 2008 3:12 AM

Grace Adele
Meet singer-songwriter Grace Adele, who is about to celebrate the release of the album
Never Lost -- the debut of the central Ohio label Zensounds, headed by guitarist
Billy Zenn:
Q What does the music on your album sound like?

A
Never Lost is a fresh spin on some vintage musical styles, infusing an
alternative-country feel with jazz, pop and rock qualities.
Growing up, I was whisked away by ballroom dancing, swept up by old-time Hollywood musicals and
provoked by folk musicians.
These influences have intuitively appeared in my music and helped me to explore elements that,
while they might not be considered cohesive at first glance, nevertheless have carved out their
individual places in the collection.
Q Friend, relative, song, record, concert, act of God -- how did your band
and album come to exist?
A
About a year ago, I was doing vocals on a Billy Zenn track and he offered
to record a demo of one of my songs. Billy's musical background and experience had naturally led
him to a producing role as well as the formation of his record label. And the results of the demo
recording inspired us both to work together on a full-length project.
Our collaboration, which has included recording my previously written songs plus co-writing and
performing the song
Temptation, has brought us to the . . . (Sunday) release of
Never Lost.

Q What is your favorite quote about your band?
A
Although it wasn't directed at me personally, I heard a musician say this
onstage recently during a visit to Nashville: 'When more than one individual believes in something, it becomes a reality.'
It seems such a simple idea -- one that can be easily taken for granted. . . . I feel fortunate
for the support from every person in my life.

Q Why should someone see you in concert?
A
It's pure amusement, with a healthy dose of whimsy. The music is
inspiring; the people who attend are enchanting; and the show is full of life, charm and
allure.

-- Aaron Beck
abeck@dispatch.com
- Columbus Dispatch

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Grace Adele in the "Other Paper"
Category: Music


“There is something both charming and disarming about Grace Adele. The local singer/songwriter combines elements of early Sun Studio country, Chris Isaak’s moody adult contemporary rock and a nouveau take on Tin Pan Alley balladry. Her new album, Never Lost, knits these loosely related threads into a whole all her own.”

- Rick Allen

From The Other Paper, Columbus Ohio 2008 - The Other Paper/Rick Allen

Four of a Kind

By Don Allred

Grace Adele
Saturday @ The Thirsty Ear

Columbus singer-songwriter Grace Adele dances old and new dreams together, warm as vinyl and clear as digits. She reports from the sultry shadows: "I'm the one you love, dear/But you don't want me/The passion I feel is mine alone." Not that she can't have fun driving herself crazy as a rock-a-billy baby, "In my silent romance/With a man who's unaware." She's more into self-scrutiny than self-pity, hanging up her hang-ups next to her raincoat, best dress and black bra, where they're "Never Lost" (also her album's title) - Uweekly/Don Allred

TOP Live & Local: Hop-brewed group stumbles into country

By Jon Theiss
Published: Thursday, October 22, 2009
Grace Adele probably never thought playing outside on a street corner would land her a gig performing with a staple group like Great Mad Hoax. But one night at the Grandview Art Hop, that’s just what happened.


“The Great Mad Hoax was playing across the street, and I was playing solo,” Adele said. Later that night, they joined each other on a park bench and started playing a few tunes—and Adele was brought into the fold soon after, she recalled.


Adele, who was busy at work on her first CD at the time, had no idea that some of the musicians she met randomly on the street corner would eventually become her partners in crime. Her affiliation with the Mad Hoax allowed her access to string players Keenan Wade, Chase Potter and Josh Huber, the guys who would eventually become members of Adele’s Grand Band.


Wade (mandolin) met Huber (upright bass) at Victorian’s Midnight Café years ago, before they started playing together in a number of different projects. Potter, who still attends high school in West Jefferson, came along in time to join the Grand Band, in which he mans the fiddle like someone twice his age.


With a mandolin, a fiddle and a stand-up bass, you’d think these would be some down-home, moonshine-drinkin’ good ol’ boys, right? Well, as it turns out, neither Adele nor the others were planning to venture into alt-country territory. It just worked out that way.


“I was kind of surprised and shocked by that, actually,” she said. “I started writing, and I was shocked that country—alternative country—was coming out of me.”


“I always kind of thought of country as a bad word,” she admitted.


Regardless of her resistance to the genre, the band really has embraced its newfound niche—especially Potter.


“I’m trained in jazz—that’s my main thing—but I grew up playing bluegrass,” he said. “I get to go back to the style of music that I grew up on.”


It’s a good thing he and the others have gotten into their adopted genre, considering the collaborative nature of the group.


“Grace has been fantastic about bringing a song to the table and just asking us, ‘Hey, I have this tune, what can you guys add to it?’” Potter said. “She’s very open-minded to letting us add whatever we want. It’s not like she’s the singer and this is just the backup band.”


With chest-singing alto Adele at the helm, the band sounds a lot like newgrass phenom Nickel Creek. Both the group and its leader have been busy: She has a solo album out now, produced by Thirsty Ear regular Billy Zenn, and the band is fresh off its first tour, which ended in August.


The tour “was awesome, it was quite an experience,” said Adele, describing a trip that began in Kentucky and continued through Tennessee and North Carolina.


The band is currently working on new material that it hopes to commit to tape in November, with a release planned in the months to follow. - The Other Paper/Jon Theiss

Songstress Grace Adele blends alternative country vibes with sounds of jazz, pop and rock on her debut album Never Lost. Adele sings original songs with a full string band, including Keenan Wade, Hayes Griffin on lead acoustic guitar and banjo, Chase Potter on violin and percussion and Joshua Huber on upright bass. Adele and her Grand Band have a jam packed schedule during their tour across Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. They'll kick off Friday with a live radio appearance on WFPK at 2pm. That evening, they'll be the featured act at Sunergos coffee. Saturday night they'll pay Quill's Coffee a visit at 9pm. They'll wrap up the weekend Sunday at the Hideaway Saloon at 9pm. where they'll open for local blur grass act Tom Boone and Friends.

-Farrah Johnson - Leo Weekly/Farrah Johnson